2014 Crossroads: Irish & Black Music, Dance & Discussion | SF

Submitted by the Event Organizer

2020 Irish-American Crossroads Festival

The Irish-American Crossroads Festival is a literary, musical, and cultural event that takes place every year in San Francisco during the month of March.

It is a celebrated annual festival inviting the public to come together around inspired, creative, and relevant events regarding Irish and Irish-American history and culture.

Thursday, March 20, 2014
Irish & Black Cultural Contributions | 2020 Irish-American Crossroads Festival

Drawing from the traditional background and diaspora of two oppressed peoples, enslaved Africans and indentured Irish immigrants, Mick Moloney and Lenwood Sloan explore the curious and tumultuous journey of the banjo, fiddle, jig, joke and jump, dance, riddle, rhyme, song, shuffle and clog.

Presenters demonstrate the collision of African and Irish cultures as they encounter each other on the American stage through examples from pre and post war Minstrel era, Jim Crow era burlesque and Vaudeville, turn of century Tin Pan Alley, and film and Broadway between the two world wars. The evening includes enlightened dialogue, spirited exchange, compelling imagery, and a rollicking music and dance demonstration.

Their cultural dialogue begins at the departure point of two diverse cultures in the 18th century; their early 19th century encounter in the Caribbean, amalgamation in New Orleans’ Congo Square, entry into America along the Mississippi after 1803, the 1840’s escape to Appalachia, and their arrival and confrontation in America’s urban cities by the beginning of the Civil War.

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.